The Fair Competition Alliance today filed public comments with the Federal Communications Commission in response to petitions from Chattanooga Electric Power Board and the city of Wilson, NC asking the FCC to intervene to preempt state government authority over municipal broadband deployment. Our letter concluded saying that:

“…state legislators and utility commissioners in states across the country have spent hundreds — probably thousands — of hour deliberating the ways best suited to their states to fulfill their responsibilities under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996…”

We urged the FCC

“…to work to encourage broadband deployment in a spirit of collaboration with the states. There is work left to be done. But this should not minimize all that has been accomplished in a relatively short time. Nor should our solutions for serving the remaining two percent destabilize the state-local relationships across the country and encourage local communities to place at risk the economic and financial futures of their constituents.”